A Story in Paper Airplanes
by butterfly collective
Summary: C.J. and Matt get trapped in their suite with a bunch of guests and a killer. "Whose Party Is it Anyway?"  from the point of view of C.J. who's dispatched to alert any potential rescuers from atop the building.


Here's a shorter FF story and it's based on the first season episode, "Whose Party is It anyway?" Hope you enjoy it, thanks for reading and the feedback.

* * *

If you're reading this letter, then you realize it wasn't just an ordinary paper airplane that interrupted your stroll through downtown L.A. in the middle of a lightning storm. This is a message for help. There are a group of us stranded on the 14th floor of this really tall building and we're trapped by a mysterious madman who gathered all of us together in one place under false pretenses so that he could kill us all one by one in really bizarre fashion.

Well, actually he doesn't want to kill me or Murray, the accountant who works for us but this fiendish person has gathered all of his enemies together in my associate, Matt Houston's suite and there's no way out. You see it all started when we all got invitations to this party and Houston and I flew over in his helicopter and he got fussy about having to wear a tux and said something about feeling like a penguin. And I just wanted to make him feel a little better so I told him as a joke, I wouldn't know, I never dated a penguin. Actually I never really dated Houston, you know on a real date. We just dress up every once in a while and go out together but not on a date. Meaning that there's no kissing, no horizontal mambas or anything like that, we just hang out together while everyone around us speculates about whether or not…well anyway, then he started saying that he needed to leave the party early.

And I'm asking him what on earth for because after all, he's hosting a reception for the vice president of the United States. He gets all sweet and explains that he has to leave early because he promised one of Vince's four sons that he would be at his first communion party. I'm trying to figure out why I even had to ask him about it because after all, I got invited to the same party and apparently forgot about that. But anyway, we land the copter on the roof and get out and Murray comes with some party guests including this blonde bombshell that just oozes trouble and it's clear there's some kind of mix ups in who got which telegram to which party. This is just plain silly because who even sends telegrams as party invitations anyway when personalized business stationary just adds such a nice touch.

So we're all standing around in our party get up feeling all confused when one of the guests, a dignitary from India speaks up and says in an appropriately grave tone that he might know why they were all invited to the same party. Now I'm thinking I know I just saw this all in a movie somewhere and then before the man can finish, he slaps his neck like he's got a cramp and just drops on the floor in front of everyone. Without even a parting word, he goes down like a ship.

Houston of course being so smart not to mention incredibly sexy in his tux quickly deduces that the man was killed by a poisonous dart which just happens to be sticking out of the man's neck. He pulls it out and someone mentions that it came from Africa. Some of the guests carry the unconscious man to the couch and just leave him there, while the action moves towards the helipad. The phones don't work in the office at all which can't just be a coincidence and Houston sends me out to try the radio in the copter. Not only doesn't that work but the damn thing blows up in my fact and knocks me off my feet. Houston, being the sweetheart that he is, comes rushing out to see if I'm dead or alive and helps me on my feet. I tell him I'll let him know if I'm okay when my heart stops beating. Which it soon does, because it always goes crazy when he's around. But my hair, my makeup, my rather unusual looking dress with flesh colored sleeves aren't mussed a bit despite the explosion. Now that's just great, but come on! How come Clover and even the older woman, Celeste are dressed to kill in these gorgeous gowns that show some cleavage and I'm wearing some weird outfit like that on a non-date with Houston? After all, Houston left me at the door of the suite when he arrived and rushed off to lip lock with Clover probably because she was dressed to kill.

My heart is still beating rapidly even though Houston's left me to go help some young computer nerd write these messages for help and then dispatch them from the top floor of one of the downtown's high rises in the form of paper airplanes.

A shot in the dark I say.

* * *

Well the guy who got hit by the poison dart kicked the bucket and got stashed in the gym downstairs while Houston decided that we had to dump everything out of our purses and the men their wallets to try to figure out which among us is the killer. Houston, being the brilliant investigator and sexy man that he is, deduced that the killer has to be one of those purportedly attending this ghastly gala as a guest. Hiding in plain sight, he called it. So we ladies dumped out our purses and noticed we all had the same collection of makeup compacts and lipsticks. Nothing embarrassing in our purses like feminine hygiene products or any prophylactics devices and even though it's the 1980s, none of the men carried anything like that either. Celeste grabbed an envelope and kept it close to her chest causing Houston who's just the sweetest man to tell her that it was her own property to do as she wished. Clover lingered around every living man left at the party including Houston.

She gets to stay inside the suite with him and I get to go out with the computer nerd to make paper airplanes and toss them off the building. I feel like I'm in third grade.

* * *

Cat Fight! Clover and Celeste who have been circling each other like panthers during the whole night finally went at it, screaming at each other and pulling hair. I had been outside having a quiet moment alone with Houston who was still dressed in his tux, looking sexy as hell and between being trapped in the suite at the mercy of an anonymous madman and it possibly being our last night on earth, let's just say I had other ideas of how I wanted to spend our last few hours together. You know how the fear of death brings people closer together to reaffirm their feeling of being alive. Well that 's how I felt and Houston…well I never found out because at that moment, Clover and Celeste's screams filled the air and by the time we ran inside, they were rolling on the floor and that evil man, Malcolm who's the center of their sordid love triangle just sat there enjoying himself. I wanted to just slap him but Houston being the brave man that he is, tried to break up the fight. But it wasn't easy because Clover and Celeste had unleashed years of animosity and jealousy and though Houston's strong and quick, he got knocked around quite a bit. The fight finally ended while the women were pulled apart but not before Houston got decked with one of the catered desserts which ruined his tux.

That meant of course he got out of the hated tux and into his sexiest pair of cowboy duds including those tight blue jeans. He still kept them in the closet even as he had gravitated away from his jeans and chaps to Armani suits and tuxes. He's gorgeous in anything and nothing (yes I peek, who wouldn't?) but I miss those chaps. I wished I could have gotten hit with the dessert too so I could get out of that dreadful dress and maybe just grab a spare slip of a dress I had hanging in the closet to put the other two women there to shame.

* * *

I don't know if the paper airplanes are really effective so Houston sent me out with the computer nerd so that we could flash Morse code from 14 stories out in the middle of a lightning storm on a Sunday night when no one would be caught dead walking around in that part of town. Earlier, the unmasked killer started messing with Baby,_ my_ baby and throwing out clues to tantalize us all over who he might be before he picked us off one by one. Even me and Murray and we were just innocent bystanders. I mean I only showed up because Houston needed a date at the last minute and I wasn't even going to get one of his goodnight kisses afterward.

Okay, I got mad, pissed that the killer was messing with my baby, okay it's just a super amped computer but sometimes I feel like it's the child that me and Houston might have some day if we stop this platonic nonsense and ever get down to business. But anyway, I said no way is anyone messing with Baby and went to take my baby back. Well luckily Houston got an inkling that the computer might be booby trapped and warned me to get on out of that seat. And he was right because right then, guns blazed and bullets hit and totaled the couch where I had just been sitting.

Ouch that would have hurt.

* * *

More people died. Celeste got electrocuted when walking out on her loser of a husband, Malcolm who then bought it with a sword after the lights went out. Damn I know I saw all this in a movie once when out on one of those boring dates I go on to not be thinking about Houston and his dates. But Houston, being the suave and sophisticated detective figured out that from a book he read once, that the killer had to be someone who faked his own death earlier on and that turned out to be the guy that died first from the non-deadly dart. All the bodies including his had vanished from the gym! We were all too busy with various drama upstairs to remember they were even down there.

He dared the guy to face off with him and the guy showed up sans turban and pulled a gun on all of us. We all had to go in the elevator as prisoners while Houston was left to face off with a man who had tried to swindle him and the other guests on some bogus deal involving the construction of a dam. Houston of course beat the crap out of the bad guy and freed us all. He and I left to go to the first communion party of one of Vince's four sons and Mama scolded Houston for looking like he'd been in a fight and complimented me for not having a hair out of place. It must have been that new hairspray I tried which allowed me to go through the eventful evening of getting knocked off my feet by an explosion and nearly getting peppered with bullet holes and of course, wondering if I would ever spend another day with my best friend Houston ever again. The party had ended, the wine had been tapped dry and the guest of honor had fallen asleep. But when he woke up and saw that his "buddy" Matt had kept his promise and arrived, the smile on his face warmed up the room. And Houston smiled back, and his smile is just so damn sexy.

The party atmosphere loosened me up a bit so that I really wanted to tell him that I couldn't just only be his best friend anymore, his girl Friday but that I wanted something more so I turned to pull him aside and that's when….Murray came running inside to tell us the good news about all the damages from the party from Hell being covered by insurance. He and Houston quibbled over how high the deductable was and my opportunity to propose to Houston that we take our friendship to the next level had passed by once again…

Until next time…signing off with one final paper missive,

C.J.

P.S. that's my real name not an alias.


End file.
